The essence of religion, in my view, is the thirst for an end higher than natural ends.
You can't know, you can only believe - or not.
I am struck here by the curious mixture of justice and injustice in our lives. We are blamed for our real faults but usually not on the right occasions.
But probably every age gets, within certain limits, the science it deserves.
The question is not what we intended ourselves to be, but what He intended us to be when He made us.
To play well the scenes in which we are 'on' concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.